I Want: One Week
by AYangThang
Summary: It took him a week of forced sobriety to finally realize the truth. Complicating the uncomplicated, analyzing what he had always merely accepted as fact. A week of facing himself in the mirror. Of cutting away the excuses and taking a hard look at his reality. Mostly Ruby/Sun. Minor Weiss/Blake.
1. Chapter 1

**AYangThang:** Kicking an addiction of any kind can be pretty ugly. Especially when you're using it as a crutch for much deeper emotional issues. Some of my readers are sensitive to some topics glossed over in the larger series. That's why this note is on the top of the page. Trigger warnings apply here, and if any of the listed content bothers you, I would advise reconsidering reading this fiction.

 _Furthermore, this is not a lemon story._ This is prior to _that_ aspect of their relationship. If you enjoy Red/Sun, they are a **sporadic,** but established pairing in the story _"I Want a Cub"_ , and the greater "I Want" universe, so feel free to look there.

 **Possible Triggers:** Alcoholism, detoxification, discussions about faith and religion, the loss of a spouse, severe depression, and dark thoughts consisting of suicide.

Lastly, I would like to ask that everyone reading treat these subjects with care if they choose to comment on them directly in the reviews. We are a large (usually loving) community, but these aren't topics to be taken lightly. I would hate to see someone triggered by another's flippant disregard for the subject matter.

Thank you in advanced.

* * *

 **I Want: One Week**

Sun Wukong was not a man of wealth, power, or esteemed dignity. He wasn't motivated by injustice, wasn't tempted by greed. In fact, when one took the time to consider it, he was more or less a simple man, with very little to concern himself over. That wasn't to say he was stupid, not by any means, but the things that brought him joy were simple. The things that made him happy were not complicated concepts. A roof of his head, good food, good people. Friends. Family. Those were not hard things to find.

He learned that they were much harder to keep once found.

As a hunter, as a man, he was not immortal. He was not all-powerful, all-knowing. If you had asked him, he had been happy, living a fairly straight forward life. It wasn't luxury, but it was his, and he loved that. He loved his work, the adventure, and daring of it all. He couldn't get enough of the late nights under the starts, conversations both deep and idiotic filling the air with an equal mix of thoughtful expression, and boisterous laughter.

He loved food over an open flame, working with his hands, and building a home.

He loved her…

He loved his late wife until there was nothing left of her but the memories he clung to. The life she'd shared with him. The child she'd given him. The soul she'd offered him, and he continued to love that. Loved her until the word was also mundane…also normal…also a way of his life.

Even still, as he sat at her grave, thinking deeply about the path he was set to walk on. Knowing now, he was ready to do so. Ready, not to turn his back, but to continue forward. Those conclusions weren't complicated either, but, they weren't easy.

His life was like a string, and he was the yo-yo, getting pushed and pulled with the tides of fate. Sun didn't know what to think about that, what to make of everything that sort of powerlessness implied. He never had to think about it before, but now, reality forced him to.

He loved Octavia until her last breath. He always would. However, that didn't mean he couldn't live his life. In fact, it meant the direct opposite. It meant he _had_ to live his life, for the sake of his son. He couldn't fail, he couldn't falter, he couldn't end. He had to continue, there was no other option.

It took him a week of forced sobriety, a week of thinking, to finally realize that. A week of complicating the uncomplicated. Of analyzing what he had always merely accepted as fact. Of facing himself in the mirror. Of cutting away the excuses, and the fog, and taking a hard look at his reality…and…

Like it or not…this was reality…it was his world. There was no way to change that.

Truthfully, he was in more agony now than he had been in seven days ago, when all of this started, but the pain made sense to him now. It was thick, it was heavy, and the fact that his child was much too young to understand made him weak in the knees.

Tired.

Sore.

Angry.

Sad.

Overwhelmed in all things, and in all ways he felt a man could be. Yet, he wasn't numb anymore. Not unfeeling. Distantly, he supposed that was the entire point.

Looking back on that week, on that seven day journey into hell, there was only one reason he made it through everything unscathed. Only one reason why he wasn't still puking his guts out, and stumbling around in delirium, sinking himself deeper and deeper into the bottle. That person was sitting beside him now, a testament to her own resolve in the matter.

"Thanks Ruby." He murmured.

The shorter woman sat legs crossed, arms crossed, eyes closed, head bowed. As if this was something she was both well practiced and comfortable with. Second nature. Her voice was equally calm, quiet, and gentle. "Don't mention it."

So, he didn't mention it, but, he did reflect on it. Everything. On the parts he vaguely recalled. The blurs, the stumbles, the highs and lows.

Everything. Nothing. Then everything again.

Just like a yo-yo.

Then he sighed and nodded, eyes closed.


	2. Chapter 2

It started shortly after Octavia's death. They all saw Sun's decline, but they didn't know the extent of it. Not until Neptune walked in on his partner too drunk off his ass to reasonably function. Sun did everything smashed, teetering over cooktops, leaning on walls, slipping around and falling on his own face in the shower. It was bad news for everyone involved. Furthermore, funerals were expensive, so was the cost of living, and keeping a family afloat.

As Sun's combat partner, Neptune took it upon himself to take missions. He traveled with Octavia's old team, but he couldn't keep doing that with Sun in this condition. Neptune called the only person with money he knew, the only person willing to use that money as the unquestionable tool for gain that it was.

Weiss Schnee.

Weiss wasn't daft of course. She knew better than to brush the call aside. If Neptune was openly asking for handouts, and in fact he had, they were in trouble. Serious, unquestionable trouble. She had never seen a hunter so broken in her life, and, lost with what to do, she called the one man who had never steered her wrong. Beacon's headmaster, Ozpin. Being the nonconventional sort that the older man was, he sent one of his personal problem solvers to deal with the mess that Sun had gotten himself into.

It was this series of events that led to that fateful Wednesday afternoon in the cold Atlas north.

Weiss, Ruby, and Qrow, entered the Wukong family home, but it was the youngest among them who charged headfirst beyond the doorway.

Her footfalls were heavy as she crept around the corner, hearing the cry of a small boy rattling unhappily at his crib. The fact that he couldn't escape and hurt himself was a small comfort. The sides were made of a thin mesh, made for children like him. Young and adept climbers couldn't scale the mesh. With a small sigh of relief, Ruby was glad that at least Zhu was in one piece.

The same could not be said for his father, who was busy relinquishing his gut to the nearest toilet bowl.

"I still say we should call a rehab program." Weiss murmured in awe. She's seen projectile vomit before, but never quite like that.

"There isn't a rehab program around that can fix his problem." Qrow said grimly. He knew, conventional methods were not the way to go here. "Hunters don't work like civilians. Our minds tick differently, those programs need you to be able to believe in a higher power, something stronger than yourself." Qrow knew better than anyone the comfort at the bottom of the bottle. "He's a man devoid of that. His higher power has to be something different, something that keeps his head on straight."

"We'll just take him with us then." Weiss said. "I'm sure we can keep him clean at the mansion."

"That isn't recovery." Qrow said as he walked around to the living room, letting Sun spew out his innards in relative peace. "You kids need to realize, you can't force his hand. A man who wants to drink, will drink. A man who wants to sober up will do it, come hell or high water." He lit up a smoke, taking a long draw. "A man who's lost his way can want to be sober all he wants, but if he stays lost, all of his effort won't do a damn bit of good."

Ruby bit her lip. They never talked about why her uncle drank so much, but she suspected that his reasons were mixed into that explanation someplace. She sighed hard, pushing away the dark thoughts. Brooding wouldn't do her any good. "How do we help with that, then?"

"Depends." Qrow murmured.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Weiss asked flippantly.

"He's hurting. His problem isn't the liquor. It's the reality he has to deal with." Qrow grumbled. "Since that's too painful to do right now, he's turned to numbing it the best he can. There isn't anything you can do but let him heal."

"If he's depressed, he needs a proper doctor."

"Not like that, he doesn't." He gave Weiss a slow, withering glance. She was too much like Winter for her own good sometimes. "He's a hunter, Weiss. He's made of sterner stuff than you give him credit for. He's not cracking. He's just broken. You can send him to a doc all you want, this isn't something you can toss a Band-Aid on. He'll be okay, you just need to take it a day at a time."

"Were you that bad?" Ruby asked.

"Face it kid, I'm worse."

"No, you're not."

"I know what I'm doing isn't healthy, I just don't care. Keep in mind, my drinking problem started way before your mom died." He sighed, looking over at Sun, still bent over, and retching something awful. "Your dad was worse off, though, betrayed by everything but the drink. Sun's…well, he's about how I'd expect." He reached for his flask before remembering that Ruby had it in her pocket. She was trying to clean Sun up, and seeing the flask would only make it worse.

"You really think so?" She asked, clinging onto that small morsel of hope.

"More or less." Qrow lingered on that thoughtfully. "The sooner you clean him up, the sooner he can mourn properly, or as properly as any man can…"

"This is not what we were taught at Beacon." Weiss protested.

"Maybe not, but you don't call me looking for textbook answers." Qrow grumbled.

"To be fair, I didn't call you." Weiss shot back.

"No, Ozpin did." He grumbled. "We've been around this block before, several times. Hell, it's practically verbatim by now. If Sun's anything like Tai, he's not hooked yet. He'll probably never get hooked like I am. He's just trying to make it by the best he knows how. He doesn't need anything complicated. Just a firm had to keep him out of trouble, and his mouth off the bottle. It's that simple."

"Is it really that easy?" Weiss asked, doubting it.

"It isn't going to be easy." Qrow said. "Simple and easy are different things."

"Simple, then." Weiss corrected herself.

"More or less." He sighed. "Look, I'd suggest getting the kid out for here for a while. First couple of days isn't going to be pretty."

"I'll stay with Sun, then." Ruby decided, right then and there.

"Absolutely not." Qrow chided. Looking at Ruby, he was finding it hard not to see the family resemblance.

"You said that's what he needs, right? Someone to stay around and keep him out of trouble?" In this, she had her mind set on it. "I'm staying."

"Damn me and my big mouth." He groused. She really did look like Summer Rose, little frown and all. It pained him to see that frown a second time. Hurt him to know that Ruby was very much her mother's daughter. He said the same thing to Ruby, that he had once said to Summer regarding Tai. "Hey, look, I get what I said. I just don't why you're going to be the one doing it."

Ruby sighed tiredly. Her voice strangely ruminant. The words not exactly the same, but close enough, to what Summer had once said. "Because someone has to, he can't live like this."

"Eh," Looking back over his shoulder, Qrow shrugged. "I don't know, Ruby. This isn't exactly your concern here. I mean, maybe you're getting a little too invested."

"Weiss and Blake can babysit Zhu." Ruby said, already jumping into action. "And you can stick around in Atlas in case I need you."

"At the Schnee manor?" He crinkled his nose. "Not enough booze in Atlas able to get me sloshed enough to agree to that."

"Uncle Qrow, please…I don't ask you to do a lot of stuff…but I'm asking now." She said, handing the man both a diaper bag filled with supplies, and the young toddler. "You said it's only ugly for a couple of days, right? Just stay nearby for one week, in case we need you. I only ask for one, and if it doesn't work, then I won't ask you for anything else."

"You really going along with this?" He asked, looking over to Weiss.

Weiss folded her arms. "I think this is a terrible, horrible, beyond moronic idea…" She sighed then. She trusted Ozpin, and moreover, she trusted Ruby. If anyone could get Sun back to the way he needed to be, it would be her. "Unfortunately for my sanity, yes, I am going to go along with it. If it doesn't work, or Ruby get's in over her head, I'm calling a professional, and that'll be the end of it."

He looked between Ruby and Weiss, finally settling back on his niece. "Fine kid…" He said, hoisting Zhu up and into his arms. "One week, good luck. Looks like you're going to need it."


	3. Chapter 3

The morning had not gone as Weiss had planned. Truthfully, she didn't have a complicated one with contingencies, but she had assumed she wouldn't need them. After all, with a skilled veteran hunter such as Qrow with them, she was almost positive he would have had one at his disposal.

Looking back, she had been sorely incorrect.

Instead, a series of unfortunately bad decisions were made, and Ruby had been the one to concoct them. Weiss once again mentally blasphemed her battle partner in every way possible. Even now, she couldn't believe it. "Leave it to Ruby to jump headlong into trouble...and leave it to me to go along with it." She huffed with aggravation just oozing out of her. "What was I thinking?"

Ruby had been her team leader for years. She had remained her friend longer still. If Weiss knew anything by this point, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that Ruby was always trustworthy. That's why Weiss had placed such blind faith into her partner. It didn't stop the white haired woman from feeling guilty, though. Soon enough though, her end of the task was proving near impossible, and the idea of keeping a young toddler around for an entire week seemed completely out of the question.

Weiss bit her lip, unsure of what to do with the crying young Faunus sitting in front of her. She paced back and forth, looking over to Ruby's uncle as the man yawned highly unperturbed. If anything, he seemed thoughtful reclining there on the sofa. His eyes were like a hawk, looking at the small monkey tail as if seeing it for the first time. He studied it before glancing away unconcerned another bored yawn his only offering for the depths of his thoughts.

"Well, aren't you going to do something?!" Weiss barked.

"Nothing to do." Qrow mumbled with his lips perched to a very expensive bottle of whiskey.

"There must be something." Weiss demanded hotly. "Anything at all to make him stop crying."

"I could always give him a little sip." Qrow joked waggling the bottle.

"YOU WOULDN'T DARE!"

At this, the man rolled his eyes, setting the bottle in his hand off to the side. "Relax kid, god, can't you ease up a little?"

"Qrow, you're an incredibly skilled hunter that Ozpin praises to great length. However in this moment, all I can see is a man who isn't even worth a fraction of that praise." She shook her head. "You're an absolute pig of a man, and my sister is right about that. Ruby entrusted this child into our care, and you continue to sit there and do the one thing that got us into this mess in the first place!"

"First of all, Chill. Second of all, quit bitching. Third, think this through." He sat upright, stretching as his back popped in several places, earning a somewhat satisfied grunt. "Look, it's like this, if you take a little kid away from its father, that kid is going to get a little pissy. Don't matter who it is, kids his age don't understand these things. You can't reason with him."

Weiss frowned at this, seeing his logic, but also biting back another curse. "Well, then what do you expect me to do?"

"Let him cry it out."

Something about that advice made an unwholesome knife twist in her gut. "I…You… No! Absolutely not."

"Then pick him up and bounce him on your knee or something." Qrow shrugged. "He's not that little, you're not gunna break him if you play a little."

"Bounce him on my…" Weiss glowered. "You're completely ridiculous!"

"Great, yeah, blow a gasket. That works too." Qrow sighed, as he flicked his gaze to hers. "You're worse than the little squirt." Before he could issue a lengthy complaint about being suck in the absolute last place he wanted to be, Yang and Blake charged in clad in SDC security uniforms. He smirked down his annoyance. So long as Yang was here, his work was done, and he took a lengthy draw of the finely aged drink in front of him. "Ah, can't beat it." He murmured, enjoying his top shelf bottle for all it was worth.

Yang had the screaming little one in her arms upon seeking the boy, and Blake wasn't far behind, checking him for injuries before Yang shooed her off.

Weiss was only partially paying attention, her face tucked into a dainty hand while her elbow rested in the palm of the other. She paced again, worrying about Ruby. She would only send sporadic text messages. None of them were long or detailed, just simple responses. "Of all the stupid, idiotic, self-appointed missions Ruby's felt the need to take on over the years. I knew I shouldn't have allowed her to go along with me when I went to check on Sun."

"Weiss?" Blake said halting the woman mid-stride.

"No, it's nothing." Weiss said with a firm shake of her head. "I have work to do. I don't have time for this."

"Then let's leave Yang here with Zhu, and I'll go back to that office with you." Blake suggested, only earning a dry, almost offended look for the offer.

"Leave…Yang and Qrow…here with Zhu?"

"I don't understand what you're giving me that look for." Blake sighed then, her hands resting pointedly on the shorter woman's shoulders to ground her there. "Ruby survived, didn't she? She turned out happy, and well rounded. If anything, they're the best babysitters we have right now."

On an intellectual level, Weiss knew the cat Faunus in front of her was correct, and that gentle smile was meant to comfort her, but Weiss felt none of that. She felt only worry, and a strange cold feeling. Something she couldn't put her finger on, as she licked her dry lips. "You're right. Of course you are. I'm just being foolish, as always. Still, there's paperwork at the office to be attended."

"Then let's go, Weiss." Blake urged gently. "He'll be in good hands, and you know that."

* * *

Ruby's heart ached with pity, while Sun's just ached. For reasons he still couldn't give a voice to, he refused to talk to Ruby. He didn't even take notice that she was there. Sun felt lower than he had ever felt in his entire life, and he had made his fair share of mistakes. This was different, so far beyond reasonable measure that he had forgotten the finer details.

Then he remembered why he felt so sluggish, so fuzzy, so hurt.

"Got to fix it." He said, still completely out of sorts, as he pushed himself off of the floor.

"Sun, where are you going?"

He blinked owlishly at her. "Need a drink." Sun said, deciding to nurse his massive hangover with more drinking.

"There's water, soda, juice, and milk." Ruby told him gently. "What do you want?"

"Not that kind of drink." He pushed passed her, on a hunt for the kitchen. "A real drink."

He had to find one, needed to. It was all he knew how to do anymore...


	4. Chapter 4

There were things on Remnant that not all souls were strong enough to face and bear witness to. This house, what little was left of it, was proof that Sun had bet his whole life on one woman. He promised his future and the entirety of his being to her. The echoes of her loss had shattered him completely. Ruby lifted a photograph that had been left on the floor, broken glass shards scattering on the floor and in the frame.

Octavia Ember, as Ruby had known her back when they were students, had mated to Sun a little while after their graduation.

As all hunters do after graduation, they began traveling the world. Sometimes, dangerous missions kept them away from each other for long stretches, but they always reunited, happier than ever. Eventually though, Octavia was ready to settle down and Sun was happy to do the same. The long distance bounty and field missions were replaced. Nearby border patrols, currier missions, village refortifications, and standard scouting missions filling their line-up. Then Octavia became pregnant. A formal wedding followed soon after. Octavia took the last name Wukong and Zhu was born later that year.

All was looking bright and well for the family, until it just wasn't.

Ruby couldn't pinpoint it. The exact moment that everything went to hell in a handbag. Frankly, it was unexpected, and a shock. Being a huntress and a mother? That was hard work, dangerous work. If Ruby had placed her bets, she would have said a Grimm would kill Octavia. As hunters, they all had to be prepared for that. Sadly though, Octavia had beaten the odds, it wasn't a Grimm that killed her.

Illness did.

Ruby put the picture back up where it belonged, and ignored the pinprick of blood that trickled from her finger as she brushed it off on her pant leg. The cut hadn't even been felt, and was now entirely healed thanks to her aura. Ruby took a breath, she had someone else to be worried about.

"Come on, Sun." She said, scooping him up from his crumpled position, nose crinkling at the smell of vomit on his breath. "Up you go." If it was burning her nose, she didn't dare guess what it was doing to him. "Can you stand?"

"Ugh." Was his strangled reply before another stream of puke exited his mouth, splashing onto the floor. "Sorry." He slurred, as she grimaced at him, cleaning his mouth and chin with a nearby towel.

"Sun, no offense, but you kind of reek, and now you're covered in puke." She said. "Get into the shower." He nodded, stumbling forward, nearly tripping over the bathtub. "Sun!" She grabbed him, nearly toppling the both of them over as she tried to balance his unsteady weight. "Sun, I need you to focus. Pay attention to what you're doing." He nodded again, but wobbled the both of them back and forth as he did so. "I guess we have no choice…" She said as she put the toilet seat down. "You sit there, and don't move."

She turned on the shower, and started shucking her dirtied clothes off, leaving herself clad in only her sports bra and boy shorts, the standard thing she always wore, especially on missions. Then she went into the kitchen and grabbed a plastic chair, sticking it into the shower. "Sun…."

"Mmm?"

"Sun, I need you to look at me…"

"Uh-huh." He did look at her, and leaned over far enough he almost fell on his face. "Yeah. Kay. Lookin."

"Sun, you're covered in vomit and, there's dried blood in your hair…" She told him as pointedly as she could. Trying to maintain his attention, a war she was losing if his constant drooping was any indication. "Sun..."

"Hmm?"

"I don't think you can clean up on your own." She said already undoing the drawstring of his pajama pants. "I'm going to help you."

"I'm…" He struggled. "I'm good."

"Prove it then." she said, pulling back and holding up a few fingers. "Sun, how man fingers am I holding up."

"Dunno."

"Three." Ruby sighed. "Sun, I'm going to help you, but these need to come off."

He shook his head blearily. "Doesn't matter."

"It does matter. They will get wet in the shower, and you'd have to change anyway." She said evenly.

"Don't care."

Beside herself, she didn't think too deeply on his attitude. Dragging his pajamas down his legs, she pointedly looking away from his nudity. She'd always suspected he preferred going commando, but it wasn't something she dwelled on. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"Ruby." Sun said, as he leaned forward and squinted more carefully than he had been a moment ago. He had enough presence of mind to notice something about her just wasn't right. He couldn't put his finger on it at first. Then he figured it out, a horrified expression mixing with the drunken one. "I see tits! Your tits!"

Crimson red, she pushed beyond the obvious. "Sun! It's cold in Atlas! Just get into the shower, butthead." She demanded, dragging him up along with her and sat him down under the spray. The hot water made everything smell worse before it smelled better. She doused him in shampoo, scrubbing his hair and letting the suds fall all over him. The water washed everything away easily enough, and she didn't dare get a good look at him as she covered him in towels and dragged him over to his bed.

"Sun, where do you keep your pajamas?"

"Don't need." He mumbled again, still completely out of it. He awkwardly dragged the towels off of him and curled up in his bed.

"You are not laying there naked…"

No answer came.

"Sun?"

A strangled sob made her freeze, and she realized he was clutching a pillow. More importantly, it was Octavia's pillow.

Leaning against the wall, she slid down to the floor clad in her soaked underwear, droplets of water still falling from her hair. She wasn't one for cursing, not truly, but there was only one way she could possibly articulate her thoughts in that instant, the curse falling from her breath almost silently. "Shit..."


	5. Chapter 5

Weiss knew the moment that she went along with Ruby's plan that she was agreeing to a great responsibility. It was one she was used to of course, as Sun and Octavia had left the boy with them for overnight missions in the past. Even so, those times were few and far between, and normally it was only for one night. An entire week was asking a bit much, but here they were, spending the evening in the company of a very small child who was happily hogging the middle of the bed.

"That is _completely_ unsanitary…" Weiss frowned as Zhu stuck his foot into his mouth.

"Better than his tail." Blake shrugged, laying across the bed in a nightgown that showed off just a little too much skin for her mate's sanity. Still, she agreed that it probably shouldn't be in his mouth and gently removed it, giving him something of a look.

Weiss saw the boy glance back at Blake. An entire unspoken conversation passing between the two Faunus. Eventually, Zhu seemed to come to some form of conclusion on his own about the matter puckering is lips and making a small hooting noise at Blake. Blake smiled at in, fluffing the messy and unkempt hair that stuck wildly in all directions as he nuzzled into the contact.

Weiss wasn't sure what was transpiring between the two Faunus, and she suspected she never would. Instead, she focused on the one thing that she could be sure of. That Ruby, ever the procrastinator, had somehow found a way to be late with her reports once again. She sent another text, and then began to let her worries trail off again. The time on the clock ticking by as Blake went back to her book, and Zhu to playing with his toes, although this time he wasn't trying to suck on them.

Finally, Weiss could take no more. "I told Ruby to inform me of her status every three hours." Weiss said, pointing at her scroll. "Where is she?"

"If Ruby needed help, she would have told us." Blake, largely unconcerned about Ruby's welfare. "This isn't an SDC mission, this is Sun we're talking about. You can stand to be a little lax on timing."

"I mandated these check-ins to be sure that Ruby hasn't bitten off more than she can chew. She shouldn't be on her own dealing with Sun in the first place." Weiss retorted hotly, though her voice remained even. "I wanted Neptune to stay with them both, but he refused to do that."

"Somebody needs to bring in some money. Besides, that's Neptune's home too, you know."

"I would have paid the bills for as long as they needed!"

A long, slow, slightly annoyed sigh drifted from Blake as she looked over at her mate. Weiss did enjoy throwing her money around, and there was no question that she felt that doing so would always be a help, not a hindrance. Her heart, and her wallet were both in the right place, but her good sense had left her the moment that Ruby involved herself so heatedly in this whole debacle.

"Weiss, sweetheart, Neptune and Sun don't think the way you do. You paid off thousands in debt, and while that might be a drop in the bucket for you, for them..." Blake trailed off. "Anyway, Neptune probably needs some time away too. This probably isn't any easier on him. At least if he's working, he can feel useful."

"If I were Yang, I'd be over there in an instant." Weiss muttered. "I'm not Yang, and _I should_ be over there in an instant."

"You're staying right here, where you belong." Blake replied back. "Yang _was_ over there in an instant. Ruby told her that if she wanted to help then she would be more useful keeping an eye on Zhu." Blake returned to her reading, turning the page. "Have a little faith, don't worry so much."

"Someone has to worry."

"It doesn't have to be you, though."

Weiss wanted to argue the point, but found herself transfixed on the sight in front of her. Little hands clung to the fabric of Blake's nightgown, holding tightly as Zhu grunted, trying to climb onto her back with little success. The silk was slippery, and his feet just couldn't get it right. He fussed a bit before Blake helped him, using the palm of her hand to give a gentle nudge to his diaper clad behind. The white haired woman shook her head at the entire scene. Zhu had always liked Blake and took to her almost as easily as he took to his own parents.

"No matter how many times I see that, it never ceases to amaze me." She meant it, too. She didn't quite understand the bond they seemed to share. It was largely unspoken, Blake's actions speaking to the child in ways words never could. Adorable though the sight was, she was mystified by the minor details.

"Weiss, stop trying to solve the problems of the world and come to bed." Blake chastised with a roll of her eyes. "We're all tired, and you're the only one who can't see in the dark."

* * *

The doorbell rang, and Ruby became intimately aware of the duffle bag smashing her in her face only a moment later.

"Yang…really?" Ruby wheezed, knowing that her sister was the only one who could pummel her with a piece of luggage in quite that fashion.

"A week of clothes, your vitamins, aura enhancers, not to mention your _sleeping bag."_ Yang said ticking the list off on her fingers. "Toothbrush, toothpaste, womanly crap - you're on in three days by the way, check your scroll – box of condoms, and whatever else I just sort of shoved in there. Next time you're staying in some dude's house, pact a damn overnight bag. You didn't think to actually bringing anything."

"I've been a little busy." Ruby said tiredly.

"I've noticed that, scatterbrain." Yang said, her voice full of concern. "Speaking of, Ruby, why are you all wet?"

"Sun was covered in puke. I had to give him a shower."

"Give him a…" Yang smacked her own forehead. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not. I put a kitchen chair in the shower, sat him down, and gave him one. He was stumbling around too much not to." Pushing her still wet hair out of her eyes, she gave Yang her most defeated look. It was honest, open, and entirely lost. "I just got done with him, but now he's just crying his eyes out. Honestly, I don't know what to do. I don't remember dad ever being like this."

"He was, though." Yang said, pushing away the bad memories that came to her.. "You were probably too little to remember the worst of it, Ruby, but dad was that bad. Some ways, he was probably worse." Yang shoved passed Ruby and into the house. "how about this, you get your own shower, dry off, and get dressed. I'll deal with Sun for a little bit so he's not on his own to get into trouble."

Ruby didn't have the heart to argue about it. Instead she nodded slowly, bag in hand as she went off towards the bathroom.

Rampant alcoholism was something Ruby knew like the back of her hand. Not from firsthand experience, but from observation. When she was small, 'drunk' was a frequent word used to describe both her father, and her uncle. The two people in her life that were her protectors, guardians, and role models seemed to be defined by the term.

It was so common, she didn't even think anything of it. Murmurs from people around them happened all the time, but she never felt inclined to ask why.

As she got older, she learned to know better. Eventually, she understood that being drunk wasn't exactly a positive thing. She could remember the slow dawning of realization, plain as day. A handful of memories painted the picture perfectly. There were plenty of times her family made a mess of themselves.

Her earliest memory happened when she was three. Her uncle fell face first into a punch bowl. She had giggled at the time. Uncle Qrow, trying to make her laugh on her birthday. Another happened when Yang won her first match at Signal. Qrow leaned too far over the railing, dragging Taiyang and himself down into the arena. Thankfully, they landed on the soft sand. She had hidden under her cloak at the display.

There he was again, Qrow, making a spectacle of himself, Taiyang no better in retrospect.

Everything came to a cynical reality when Ruby got into Beacon and witnessed Qrow's continual antics on the campus. He was almost always drunk. Almost always causing disorderly conduct. Almost always destroying property, fighting, and getting kicked out of reputable places. She merely smirked and accepted it back then, egging him on a little, resigning herself to the truth of the matter.

Qrow had a terrible drinking problem, plain and simple.

Her father was no saint either, and grappled with the substance like a starving lion craving a piece meat. With keen fixation, and ravenous intent. Not a single thought given to anyone who might accidentally by harmed by his actions. In fact, it was rumored that Taiyang was almost more reckless than Qrow. Those rumors Yang refused to ever speak of, at least, not to Ruby.

Ruby didn't remember it directly, she was too young, but she had heard the whispers. Taiyang had nearly killed himself once by drinking too much. It was up in the air if that amount of drinking had been accidental, or on purpose. All in all, it was in the past, and it didn't matter. What did matter was that Ruby was sure of one thing.

Loss could break a man. It could destroy him beyond reason, and leave him haunted. It could make him stubborn, angry, and blinded to everything else around him. Lastly, most importantly, it could push him to give up, give in, forsaking everything else good inside himself, and in the world around him.

Ruby knew this demon known as alcoholism well, but Sun was one person who wouldn't get dragged down into its clutches. Not if she had anything to say about it.


	6. Chapter 6

Sun had one simple solution to everything wrong in his life; dull the pain every chance he had.

Drink it away to the best of his ability. He planned to keep doing that, but Ruby intended to stop him. For reasons still vague to him in his moment of selfishness, he didn't understand. Didn't care. His attempts were thwarted at every turn, and he went to great efforts, that was for sure.

Ruby had searched the house from top to bottom, clearing the home of any beer, liquor, and wine she could find. Finally, thanks to her persistence, there was nothing left for him to drink away his sorrows. She was hyper vigilant, like a woman on a mission, but that was perhaps because she found this to be the hardest mission of her life.

The man in front of her tirelessly searched for a drink. Sun lifted an empty bottle in a vain attempt to lick out the insides. "Fuck." He snarled, slamming the glass onto the floor when it proved fruitless. All he could taste was water. She even rinsed out what little remnants might be inside. He grabbed another, only for the pattern to continue. Another still, and his frustration mounted. "Goddamn it!"

"Sun," Ruby sighed softly. "You aren't going to find anything."

"Oh yeah?" A bitter growl left his lips. "And whose fault do you think that is?"

"You can be angry all you want." Ruby said softly. "I'm not going to let you drink. Sit down and eat your breakfast."

"I'm not hungry."

"I don't care, you're going to sit down, and you're going to get some real food into you."

"Fuck off."

"Sun!" Ruby hollered. "Sit down!"

Ruby didn't know what to expect in all of this, or what might be achieved by forcing Sun into sobriety. She had no way of knowing if she was truly helping him, and she doubted that she would be strong enough to fight him off if he turned violent. Sun was a hunter, same as her, and that would always be different than fighting off Grimm. She locked his weapon away and hid the key to the compartment, but aura itself was powerful, and Sun was a Faunus.

Physically, he was superior to her in every way expect for her semblance speed. If he retaliated, Ruby knew it would get dangerous, and she had been on the receiving end of aggressive hunters before. She knew their dangers all too well. She was teetering on Sun's emotional edge, and she knew it. This was a careful dance she knew to play, and she treaded with great caution.

Ruby had even called her uncle for advice, but that didn't help either. Qrow had never been the sort of man to rely on conventional wisdom. His methods were solidly, wholly, inappropriate. As an adult, she realized his instability for what it was. After all, no man in his right mind would train a child to wield a scythe the way he had taught her to. It was frightening really, when one took the time to think about it.

His training sculpted her into a child able to kill Grimm, and laid the foundation for that child to grow into a woman able to slay the largest, most deadly of beasts. Still, the arguments of success aside, that didn't change the heart of the matter.

At fifteen, she really had been just a child. A little girl, and nothing more. Qrow, though a loving uncle, was also something of a madman.

Now, she wasn't joking herself.

All of Beacon's students were merely children at the end of the day, and Ruby now knew the extent of Remnant's situation. Of her own situation as a huntress. All of the schooling in the world couldn't possibly have prepared her for the aftermath. The quiet moments after her blade was put down. The moments when the crackling firelight was the only thing keeping her warm. She had grown used to solitary missions after graduation, for reasons that were entirely personal.

Entirely her own.

Something as domesticated as doing the dishes was completely alien to her. Ruby never once lifted a finger for domestic duties. Her missions kept her away, so staying in one spot like this, bogging down her mind with concern for another…those emotions were childlike things to her. Fragile. Tender. Things that, if she were honest, she hadn't allowed herself to feel in a long time. Scrubbing a pan was mundane enough that her mind could skitter to the darker places.

And that, honestly, was more uncomfortable than anything else.

With her clothing rolled up and away from the dish water, evidence of her job, her past, marked her. Then again, all good hunters had an imperfection or two to show for it. An old training injury. A mission gone wrong. Something, anything, to prove they'd survived. Ruby, if anything, had taken after her uncle in more than just combat. She had adopted plenty of his ass-backwards, lunatic, convoluted reasoning as well.

She was a survivor because she pushed to be, because she demanded it. She was going to live her life. The world was not going to trample her underfoot. As her uncle said, it was that simple, and, it was _that_ difficult.

"Sun…" Ruby took a hard breath. "Sit down, and eat. Please, just do as I say."

He did, eventually, sit down.

Sun looked up from his place from the table. He hadn't said a kind word to her all morning. After waking up in his bed, sobbing into his dead wife's pillow, what was he supposed to say? What kind of apology did he even give? What did he say as a consolation? What excuses at his pathetic attempts to pull himself together? He was clean now. Dressed. Sitting upright with a pounding in the back of his skull.

Yet, for all of this, they both knew he was the furthest thing from okay. "What do you want from me?" He asked.

"I need you to eat." She pressed for what seemed the thousandth time. "I don't care if it's just the toast, but it's got to be something."

He looked down at the spread. It was a typical hiker's meal, with a bit of added luxuries. Oats made with milk instead of water. Bread slathered with real butter. Not that spray on garbage that could withstand the elements. The scrambled eggs were real, not freeze-dried. The fruit was fresh, not canned. A meal that over a fire with his team members would have warmed his belly.

A meal like this would have made him the happiest man in the world a few weeks ago.

Sun just wasn't hungry, and picked at a slice of toast with the same disinterest someone might give a moldy hunk of bread. "Thanks for worrying, but don't waste your time on me, Ruby. There's no point." Sun said slowly. "I'm not worth it."

Ruby sighed, all of the hard lessons coming back to her in ways she didn't want to recall. Flinging the suds off her hands she reeled on him, grabbing the chair he sat in. With her semblance and raw strength, she flipped it to face her, jostling him around in the process. "That's not your call to make." She said quietly, tapping his nose with her finger. "If I want to waste it, that's on me." She handed him the plate of toast. "Eat it."

"Not hungry."

She gently grit her teeth, sighing hard and long. "We're not leaving this table until you do."

His eyes fell to an old gash along her wrist and thumb. A wound from her own scythe by accident. A training wound, or so she said at the time when she was bleeding all over the sparring room floor. The years were dusty now, but he frowned. "Was that…really an accident…back then?"

"Sun, I use a scythe. If I wanted to hurt myself, I could do a lot better than that." She frowned, her thumb on her other hand running along the scar. It was truly an accident. All the more reason scythes were known to be one of the most dangerous weapons to use. They bit back at their master if mishandled. She didn't handle it with care, and it reminded her of just how deadly it could be. That was all there was to it. "Sun, do you know why I use a scythe?"

He shook his head. Of course he didn't. For as much as Ruby talked about her scythe, it was all superficial. Modifications, combat, the color…things that were, at its core, very impersonal.

She turned back to doing the dishes. Part of it was the distraction, the mindless action of scrubbing down pots and pans. "I use it, because I don't want to forget what it means to be a huntress. To other people, it's a job. To me, it's a way of life. The way I saw it, scythes were super cool, but also, super deadly. So is being a huntress. If I could master one, I was just that much closer to being the sort of person I wanted to be."

"That so?" He asked, almost rudely. He didn't mean anything by it, it was just the way it slipped out.

"It is." Ruby said, not letting his bad mood get her down. "I came out of Beacon all banged up, though. Maybe if I had a sword, I wouldn't have messed up so much, but anyway, I don't regret that scar."

"Yeah, well not all of us are like you, Ruby." Sun replied. "We don't romanticize our job. Or make it more than what it is."

She pressed her lips, dried her hands off again, and fished in her breast pocket for a lighter she kept on hand. One of the many tools a hunter carried on principle. This was black steel, with her emblem etched into the middle. It was a graduation present from her uncle. She wore it over her heart, both as protection, and as a reminder. "Then burn it." She said. "If it means that little to you, burn your license, and don't look back."

But Sun didn't move. He just watched the flame.

"Well, are you going to do it?"

"No."

She closed the lighter, putting out the flame. "That's because it means something to you." She turned back to the dishes. "Remember that."


	7. Chapter 7

Octavia was everything to him, and so was her memory.

Her smell lingered everywhere. Small reminders of the place she used to have in his life. The crushing reality that she would never stand in that place again. Her scent permeated his thoughts, sunk into his mind heavily. The smells were older, faint, as if she were gone away on a mission. When he had been drunk, he could delude himself into thinking that. It had happened so often in their lives. Second nature, and part of who they were. Both as a couple, and as hunters.

Sober, he had no choice but to accept the scent for what it was. Octavia wasn't on a mission, and those smells of her simple existence would fade more and more. The moment he washed a piece clothing or the bedsheets, it would disappear entirely.

Not even her ghost would linger in those all too important places.

So he sat there, mutely, watching as Ruby did it all. Biting the inside of his cheek so hard, he bled. Swallowing the crimson, the tears, all of the ugliness he had no words for. Stifled goodbyes in the back of his throat, because he couldn't do it.

He just couldn't do it.

And as he soon found out, he couldn't watch Ruby do it, either.

That was when he looked over to the open cupboards above the sink. The storage for the cleaning solutions they kept well out of Zhu's curious reach. They were now staring him in the face, the large bottle of bleach, the drain cleaner, any of it. Just a swig. He would be gone. Just that easy…and when he really thought about it… it _was_ that easy. It was just like Ruby said. If she had wanted to hurt herself, a cut on her hand was the least of the damage she could cause…and really…as a hunter…with guns for weapons… _it was that easy._

It was that _simple_. And that terrified him.

He stood up on wobbly legs, leaving the things he couldn't bring himself to think about behind. Droplets of yesteryears floating around in the endless expanse of his home. Or, rather, what he used to think of as home. Now, it was just hell.

Unmitigated, total, complete, hell.

Hands in his pockets he walked along the roadside between his home and the corner store. Ruby had his wallet, his money, everything he might use to get himself a drink. He wanted it so badly he could imagine the taste. Yet it wasn't the flavor he wanted. No, he just wanted to forget a little. Just a bit, so that he didn't have to think about anything, or anyone. He felt the urge to steal it, the idea stinging behind his eyes, prodding him with all the ways he could successfully attain just a few moments of quiet for his head.

None of them were worth it though. He wasn't worth being a burden to others either, not even strangers, so he went back home and sat on his front stoop, reconsidering the chemicals on the top shelf time and time again. He couldn't honestly name the reason that kept him from doing it, but there was something, about the idea, something about leaving everything behind that twisted his gut in the same way living did.

Killing himself wasn't the answer, he knew that, felt it to be true…but, as he sat there, watching the world turn, he struggled with the right thing to do. The answer placed in front of him, a path he was afraid to walk alone.

The path of living.


	8. Chapter 8

He could feel the long moments when his mind drifted now.

There was an edge to his clarity, sharp, pinpoint accurate in the way he felt cheated in his life. Anger came to him, but not in the way he expected. It was a dusty, dry sort of rage. It didn't bubble in his gut, or twisted his darker thoughts outward with malicious intent. Perhaps that's what made his anger all the more sinister. it wasn't volatile, and he could think circles around it.

This anger was tolerable in a way it had never been so before. The sort that could loom over him, and he was content to let it do so. It felt right to be so angry, so spurned by the world. To hate every single justification as it came at him.

He tried to rationalize so many things, too many, and it was all starting to blow back in his face. Like a bitter gritty reality, a storm he couldn't climb out of even if he tried. There were no illusions in the way he perceived his situation now. There didn't need to be any, and that was the worst thing he could have imagined.

He could count the cold hard truth on his fingers.

He was a good guy. He tried to do the right thing. He put himself in the path of danger for the sake of others. He cared about Remnant and its many peoples. He donated what little he could to charity, built homes, battled Grimm. He tried to be a remodel, tripping along the way every now and then. Yet, Sun could honestly say he always made an effort to correct his wrongs. He considered himself a good friend when it counted, and he had never been given any evidence to suggest he was anything less than a wonderful mate to Octavia.

His only complaint, of which he found somewhat unforgivable, was his duties as a father. He was away on missions plenty of the time, and didn't know Zhu half as well as he ought to have, but that was a working man's life. A hunter's life, and he had made peace with that. To provide for his family, and his community, he jut couldn't be around as often as he'd like to be.

So then the question became, with all of his best efforts, why did everything always go so wrong?

A lot of things he never felt the need to complain about mingled into his mind, and with all of the negativity surrounding him, there was a bitterness sinking under his skin. A glass of fizzing soda was not the cure to the thoughts rolling around in his head. A game of cards did nothing to keep him busy either. Each one was just another reminder of what he couldn't have.

"We should go for a walk." Ruby suggested, but Sun shuffled the deck and passed out the cards again. Another round of go fish that would never go anywhere. Yet Ruby was persistent, and tried once more. "We can't just sit here all day, Sun."

"Watch me." He answered flatly.

"I can't." Ruby told him. "I can't sit here and watch you just shut down on yourself like this."

"Then don't."

She shook her head. "I can't do that either."

He slapped the cards down on the table harder than he meant to. "Well, knowing you like I do, you're going to do something. You're always so damn busy all the time, you don't know what it's like to sit around and think."

"I don't know what it's like? That's almost funny. A sick joke, sure. Honestly though, is that the best you can do?" Ruby murmured to him, surprised. "If you're going to insult me, you need to do better than that." She picked up the cards, eyeing them thoughtfully.

"I'm not trying to insult you, I'm just done with all of this bullshit." Sun grumbled. "I want to be alone."

"No, Sun, you don't." Ruby sighed. "You don't want to be alone at all, that's the whole problem."

"I can't have what I want." He grumbled.

Suddenly very tired, an old feeling of fatigue washed over Ruby in that instant. She knew it well, like a second skin, and weary sigh landed heavily in the silence. "Listen, I have no idea what you're going through right now, but you have kid to look after."

"He doesn't need me any more than Atlas needs a swarm of Grimm." Sun brushed off. "He'd be better off someplace else."

"As of right now, you're probably right." Ruby whispered. "Maybe he'd be better off if he never knew a thing about you, or Octavia, or anybody you know." Ruby shrugged then. "I might have been better off someplace else, Yang too…but that's not how things work, Sun. The thing is, you're never going to know, and maybe what you think is better off, is actually way worse. Maybe you're the best thing he has, and you just don't see that…"

"You're right." Sun murmured. "I don't see it."

"Then get a clue, and stop being stupid." Ruby hissed. "He needs you, but if you can't see that, then that's your fault." Ruby voice colored with disappointment. "I can't just ignore that, Sun, and I won't. If you can't even try to pull your head out of your butt for his sake, then what the hell was it all for?"

"We wanted a family." Sun murmured after several long moments passed. "Together."

"Zhu is your family, Sun."

"This isn't a family, Ruby." Sun told him. "This isn't even a home. There's nothing here for him anymore. Nothing here for me, either."

"Then, make something." Ruby said as she stood from the kitchen table and crossing over to the refrigerator, grabbing a bottle of water and cracking the lid. She drank deeply from it, as if she were dying of thirst, the plastic crinkling in her hands. "Make something for him, Sun. Don't just sit there grumbling over a deck of cards and lost memories. Actually get off your butt and do something."


	9. Chapter 9

Ruby was right about one thing, he couldn't just sit around idly his whole life. It was no way to live, and he knew it.

Finding that first step though, that was a harder thing to think about. He didn't know how to do it.

He could close his eyes and think back to happier times, but it just put him in a bad mood. A lonesome desire to go back to those brighter days clawing at his gut. Like it or not, Ruby kept pushing with gentle, annoying, mindboggling persistence. It was infuriating just how hard she could hit the nail on the head, and how sharp her words could cut. He wondered if she realized what power her words held. How relentlessly they struck him.

The long held stress in her voice, repressed from years gone by, they meant something profound. Still, they tied together the worst insults without even trying. It was nothing meant to be that way, but the truths she spoke of, they were hardly easy to swallow.

She was right about Zhu, too.

He thought about his son, about what the boy was likely doing in the safety of the Schnee manor. Zhu was probably under Blake's watchful eye, or terrorizing the household with Yang's help. Either possibility made sense. Either way, the little boy was probably happy, laughing, and completely unaware of the difficulties his father struggled through.

It was an unrelenting guilt that made Sun's thoughts harder to process. He had always wanted to be a father. That wasn't a choice he made idly when he took Octavia as a mate. He had expected a life with her, had planned ahead so perfectly, he could see his future in front of him every time he closed his eyes to sleep. In his old visions, there wasn't going to be any deviations in those plans.

A few children, a small home, plenty of good times. However, he had never planned for the dark cloud in front of him, or what that might mean for his future going forward. He never planned for a future without a mate. He never gave thought to the idea that his perfect little idea of home could be so thoroughly ruined, and he had never given any thought to what that might mean for his son in the aftermath.

There had never been any room for such depressing thoughts before, but now, there was no room for anything else.

There was one thing he couldn't deny, he wanted to see his child.

* * *

Ruby was shocked when he had made the demand on that all too cold morning. Bitter wind nipping at the noses of any who stepped outside. Sun also wasn't willing to leave the house, insisting someone bring Zhu home. Eventually, after some thought, and willingness to take a blind leap of faith, Ruby left to retrieve the child herself. She wasn't completely positive it was the best idea, but, she truly doubted it was the worst.

It was the first time he wanted something other than booze, and she was driven to encourage Sun to the best of her ability.

Convincing the others would be the thing that proved difficult. Qrow, of course didn't seem to care one way or the other. He was on his way out the door swiftly with a gleam in his eye and a dirty smirk plastered across his face. As if he was about to go in search of some entertainment sure to get him kicked out of the nearest fine establishment. She sighed at his antics, yet again swearing to herself that Sun would never, ever, emulate her uncle's bad habits. She wouldn't let it happen.

Other than her uncle's goal to become plastered at a moment's notice, it was a typical day in the Schnee household. Blake was curled up near the fireplace with a good book, Zhu idly sleeping in her lap. Yang and Weiss hovered over a game of checkers. The maids brought in tea, and the household staff kept clear of the living area that the group currently occupied.

"I don't know about this, Ruby." Weiss said as she bent over the checker board, deeply invested in her game with Yang. She preferred chess, but the blonde didn't have a knack for it. So few of her friends actually played chess on a competitive level, and even Blake struggled to offer any sort of meaningful challenge. Checkers, however, provided at least some difficulty. "I don't think he's ready."

"To be fair, you haven't even seen Sun, Ruby has." Yang pointed out, priding herself on getting to the other end of the board with her red plastic piece. "King me."

"Blasted game..." Weiss murmured under her breath, doing exactly that before turning back to Ruby. "Honestly, I can't even believe you left Sun in that house alone. What if he get hold of something he shouldn't have?"

"He won't." Ruby insisted. "I'd be lying though, if I didn't say I consider this a test of sorts. If I go back, and he's completely trashed again, then I'll know there's nothing I could have really done from the start…but if he didn't go get something from the corner store, then I'll feel like we're going in the right general direction." Ruby trailed off. "I've got to be able to trust him at some point, we all do."

"According to you, he's still depressed." The white haired woman retorted turning her attentions back to the game for a brief moment. "Blake, thoughts?"

"Sun is Zhu's sire first and foremost." Blake said distractedly. "If he wants his child back, we have to abide by that. What we think doesn't matter."

"Well, I still don't like it." Weiss sighed. "At the very least, he's still moping around."

"He has no reason not to, Weiss." Ruby told her darkly. "He just sits there, and every damn little thing in that house reminds him of the life he used to have. Everything's still so raw for him. He just doesn't see what he has waiting in front of him. If we don't show him those things, no one will."

"And you think subjecting Zhu to Sun's sour mood will somehow fix all of that?"

"I'm saying that if Sun's anything like a father should be, it'll give him a reason to get off his butt." Ruby rubbed her eyes, feeling the headache there. "I'm expecting Sun to relapse eventually, that's kind of how the pattern works and all. I can't tell you how many times we found dad bent over the toilet bowl…even last year he…" Ruby squashed down that thought. "Never mind, that's not the point. What is the point, is that Sun needs a distraction that actually matters."

"I can't believe you would think it wise to take Zhu back there, Yang, talk some sense into your sister."

"Nah, actually, I think she kind of might be right." Yang sighed, hating herself for even thinking that way. "A dad can only really learn to be a dad if the kid is there. Sun's got to figure some of this stuff out on his own. Besides, Ruby will be there, and we're still here. We can always go get him if Sun decides he's not put together enough to figure things out."

Weiss could only bite back an annoyed curse. "I'm surrounded by idiots…"


	10. Chapter 10

Weiss eventually caved, but it was something she was fond about as Blake packed up the diaper bag and handed it off to Ruby. The white haired woman issued a few more warnings about being vigilant and calling as soon as problems reared their ugly heads, but Ruby only promised halfheartedly.

She just wanted to get back to Sun, wishing to every deity that she could reasonably think of that he had managed to keep himself sober. She clung to that hope desperately, and every moment wasted, was a moment longer she was left wondering. A few texts on a scroll wasn't good enough, not when she knew the kind of vice-like hold booze could have over a person.

Finally, Ruby was well on her way, with Zhu in her arms.

Ruby was used to the elements, and enjoyed being out in them, rain or shine. The bitter cold didn't slow her down, she was inspired by it. The wind goading her to move faster. Zhu huddled inside her cloak for warmth. She could have taken a limo back, as Weiss had offered, but Ruby's own feet could carry her just as well. Thanks to her semblance, she could go faster than any car, though a simple jog would do just fine in the circumstances. At this time of day, she could beat the midafternoon traffic on foot anyway.

She took a deep breath of the cool and crisp air, yet another reason she wanted to make the walk back on her own. She wanted the time to think, and a trip to the corner store near Sun's house needed to happen anyway.

Zhu seemed content enough bundled in his own winter coat. The red cloak around them warded away the wind and snow Ruby kicked up around her. She looked down at him watching him fiddle with the end of his tail. It was covered with its own long knitted piece of fabric. The little puff of blue at the end called to his attention, and he toyed with it while he studied her.

A low, thoughtful hoot issued from the boy, and Ruby to chuckled mildly.

"We'll be home soon little guy." She said, though she wondered how much of that he understood, if anything at all.

She picked up the pace with care, running into the distance with the child in her arms.

* * *

Zhu Wukong was a little a happy-go-lucky bundle of energy on a good day. On bad days, he was restless and rambunctious, always in search of new ways to entertain himself. Having inherited every bit of his father's meddlesome curiosity, Zhu had a zest for life and a gift for making trouble. He was adventurous for his age, too, which only added to his caregiver's worries.

In an attempt to keep the boy safe, Sun had unlocked the child's aura early. It was common, and most Faunus parents tended to do it. However, Zhu's aura it had yet to kick in on an intuitive level. It was only a matter of time before Zhu would grapple with control of it, and Sun prayed it would be sooner, rather than later.

Monkey Faunus were small climbers after all, prone to heights, and the pitfalls of gravity.

Zhu was smart and cunning, the latter trait offering no end to his mischief. The small Faunus boy had always been that way, ever since he was born. His normally cheery attitude was an experience in and of itself as he launched himself at his father. Small toes and fingers dug into the fabric of his father's shirt as a muscular arm kept Zhu from falling.

Naturally, the too young monkey Faunus had no fear of heights, or of falling down. His heritage and minimal aura protected him from his rough and tumble ways, but Sun held tightly, just in case.

Zhu's inexperienced tail curled happily around that strong bicep, but the hold was clumsy, and not enough to protect Zhu on its own merits. The small boy didn't seem to care though, he was far too busy sniffing around, in search of something that simply wasn't there.

He hooted at his father expectantly, but Sun ignored the question, ruffling the boy's messy locks instead.

"What was that about?" Ruby asked.

"Ah, well, you know...stuff." Sun shook his head, swallowing and looking away. "Anyway, it's probably about time for lunch. He's hungry, I'll bet."

"It is about that time, isn't it?" Ruby said, allowing the abrupt change of subject. Checking her scroll she noticed it probably was time to get a meal started. "Well, what do you want to eat?"

"I don't really know. Maybe some fruit salad, or something?"

"Good thing I picked up some actual fruit and veggies at the store then." She held up the plastic bags she had reinforced a few times so that they wouldn't break. "We can't live off canned goods forever." Then she smirked. "Well, I mean, we can, but why eat that when you can eat what's fresh, right?"

"Fruits and veggies, huh? Zhu loves that stuff. He's just like his mom in that way." He spoke the last bit more to himself than to Ruby as she stepped passed him, one hand falling onto his shoulder supportively as she finished making her way across the living area and into the kitchen. He could only shake his head and force another smile, hoping his son wouldn't detect his sour mood through his scent. "Guess we should go in too, huh?"

Zhu hooted merrily in response, none the wiser.

* * *

Seeing the red hair on Zhu's head and his cheery demeanor was a bitter little detail that hurt to notice. He looked so much like his mother, impish tendencies aside. He was too little to really understand what was happening in the world around him, and too easy going to care about anything other than the fruit pieces cut into little chunks on the paper plate. His tail curled happily, none the wiser that his father seemed conflicted about something as simple as lunchtime.

Ruby noticed though, and she wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

"You're good with him." Sun said, trying to form civil conversation. "Better than I am, usually."

"I've never seen you be anything other than good to him." Ruby said, and she believed it to be true.

"Nah, you're better." He said, as he combed the unruly locks on his son's head and tail. He forgot the last time the boy had a trim, but he was long overdue. If that was meant to be taken as a compliment to her abilities with small children, or simply that he thought himself somehow inadequate, Ruby wasn't sure. "I'm glad you think so." It wasn't the reply she wanted to say, but she couldn't think of anything better. The air was strange, heavier than before. Some sort of weight carried in Sun's words, a forced sort of sincerity and kindness that was only half there.

"Wasn't much I could do when he was little. Now that he's getting older, I can finally teach him how to use his tail. Before, Octavia kept him on the hip most of the time. It was a mother's job, she said, and honestly I felt inclined to agree."

"Oh yeah? Tell that to my dad." Ruby said softly. "I'm sure you'll get a laugh."

"Honestly, Ruby, I kind of figured you would have already settled down by now." He continued, as he watched Ruby lean heavily over the counter top, knife in hand. Watching her prepare meals had become a common thing to him, and he thought her to be quite good at the task. Yet, he also noticed just how much she seemed to hate it.

Ruby looked over her shoulder. "This sort of lifestyle doesn't suit me."

He raised a brow to that. "Looks just fine to me."

"I hate it."

"It doesn't seem like you do."

"Oh, I do. I always have." Ruby told him. "Living like this, cooped up all the time. There's no place to go, nothing to think about except for the same things, over and over again. The same routines day in, and day out." She didn't dare look up from her task. She refused to give Sun even that small measure of satisfaction. "There's nothing in that kind of life for me. I belong in the wilds, alongside the Grimm."

"Kind of lonely out there, isn't it?"

"Any lonelier than being trapped in this house?" Ruby asked him. "You'll forget what it's like to be out there if you keep it up."

"Touché."

Ruby looked at the diced up pile of fruit on the cutting board, the chicken sitting out to thaw, and everything else in-between the two points. She set down the knife with care, the metal scraping upon the wood of the chopping board. "One of the first things Oobleck really taught me wasn't something he could teach me in a classroom. He said that some Grimm were smart, and he told me why he became a hunter. I was fifteen then, standing in the ruins of Mountain Glenn. I always wanted to be a huntress, but that was the first time anyone had given me any real perspective on it."

"And that's important because…?"

"I thought killing Grimm was the only real part of it. Helping people, sure, but how? I never had an answer for any of that before Oobleck came along." She told him, finally lifting her gaze to Sun. "I think there are two kinds of hunter. The kind that kill Grimm to cut numbers, and the kind that try to understand the Grimm. I like being out there too much. I've gotten so used to Grimm, slaying them isn't the first thing I think about. If they're not doing anything, I just leave them be."

"Ruby, that's kind of twisted."

"Trust me, I know." Ruby smirked. "I'm not saying that most Grimm aren't evil. They are, and they're a threat. Most of them you just have to take down. You don't have a choice. Then again, some just aren't aggressive at all. You can go right up to them, and so long as you're not in a bad mood, they'll just sort of ignore you." Ruby licked her dry lips, wishing she was out there in the elements. It was where she felt most at peace, and where everything made the most sense. "Grimm feed off of negativity, but if you honestly don't have any in that moment, the older ones…the ones that are smart, they won't react."

Sun shrugged, saying nothing more even though it was obvious that he wasn't convinced.

"I love the wilds, Sun." Ruby told him. "To me, it's where I belong. The problem is...there aren't a lot of people who understand that. They can't love the job the way that I do. I'm a huntress, it's just who I am. I won't ever compromise on that."


	11. Chapter 11

What was inner strength?

That was a question he grappled with, that all hunters did when they attended the academies. The question was posed to them at all times, in ways that he would never have thought to ponder. A hunter had to be strong, but the ways that strength manifested varied drastically from person to person. In fact, in retrospect, the academies were not there to teach students how to slay Grimm. They weren't even there to issues licenses upon graduation.

Those were only the surface level arguments to be made for them. They had their place, sure, and they did do those things. Yet, that wasn't the reason itself for those academies to exist.

An adult hunter knew better.

For a small handful of years, he had been groomed to do battle against Grimm. That was surface level too. A hunter's real reason for being wasn't to simply cull the Grimm. It was to eliminate the reason that the Grimm attacked at all. The darkness found within the peoples of Remnant, that was the cause. A hunter who could not bring peaceful resolution only promised to make more strife.

More strife, tantalized more Grimm.

Ruby was right about the Grimm. You couldn't tame them, generally they were dangerous beasts. They were unpredictable, and shouldn't be trusted. However, they could be mollified enough to stay away from civilization. Only a truly powerful hunter could tame their own emotions enough, to pacify a wandering Grimm. Failing that, killing the Grimm was the only was. It was the latter that was the most common, not the former. Knowing this only proved to him how weak people truly were.

So, what was inner strength to him? What did it mean for him to have it? The thought was a constant struggle.

Sun had to force a smile like never before, and it bothered him. It was late at night before he finally admitted it to himself, and to Ruby, who sat near the fireplace, prodding the logs with a stick. "Seeing Zhu, I thought it would make me want to drink less…stupid idea really." He sighed, his palm ruffling that short, messy head of hair. "Just makes me want more."

Ruby only continued to gaze into the warmth in front of her. "Wanting it, and doing it, are different things, Sun."

Sun laughed bitterly then, his voice low so as not to wake the small child. "I'm pretty sure I'm a lost cause."

"I don't think that." She said, her eyes focused on the fire.

What she saw in the embers were anyone's guess and Sun wasn't in the mood to try. Instead, he looked at one of the discarded and forgotten toys that Zhu had abandoned before falling asleep. It had seen better days. He never was the best craftsman around. He cut away at wood for hours, aimlessly making shapes until something looked right. Often on missions he did it just to pass the time.

His son had gotten use out of the toy.

He played with it until the wood cracked from rough and tumble abuse. The wheels didn't turn anymore, and it was nothing like what Sun had originally made. He smirked at that, berating himself. He own father could work magic with a slab of wood and a carving knife, but Sun had never really learned. Never took the time. His youth in Vacuo had been spent chasing the girls around, and has he got older, his ability to fight was truly his only strong suit academically.

He flunked his way through more than one class, his ability to battle carrying him farther than his textbooks ever would have. He grew into his intellect when it became unavoidable, having his textbooks bashed into him by Neptune. Even after graduation, he wasn't the mastermind that other team leaders were known for. It was his common sense and easy going attitude that kept his leadership strong. He never used to let things get him down, and because of that, his team always came home in one piece…more or less.

Now, depression was all that he felt. Worthlessness was all he knew. Without those few key qualities that made him a great leader, he couldn't even consider taking missions. He couldn't lead his team, hell, he couldn't even lead himself.

"Ruby, why do you care so much?"

She paused, the stick in her hand digging into the ash rather roughly. She snapped it in half, and tossed it into the fire. "I don't know."

"Oh…"

"I guess I just…" Ruby shrugged. "Never mind, it would sound insensitive."

"Maybe I deserve that." Sun said.

"You don't." Ruby sighed.

"Tell me anyway." Sun pressed as he leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. "I want to know."

"I've never really been on the other side of the fence before." She said, one hand weaving into her hair, her forehead resting against her palm. "This puts a lot of things in perspective."

Sun flicked his tail curiously. "How so?"

"I don't really remember much from my mom. Little things come to mind, but I wonder if they're actually my memories, or just the things I've heard over the years. I was so little, and the older I get, those sorts of things get blurry." At that she grabbed another stick. "What doesn't get blurry is the aftermath. The things that everyone else in my family refuses to let go of. Good things, bad things…the harder they hold on, the more complicated it gets."

"Sounds like a shitty situation, if you ask me."

"It's not bad, it just is, what it is." Ruby sighed so deeply that it hurt. "Summer Rose was my mom, but I'm the outsider. I don't remember her, Sun. Yang has all of these memories, but all I have are stories, old pictures, and what's left of her things in dad's attic. That's it. I only have what others will give me." She sighed again, her voice uneven. Struggling to find purchase. "I'm not satisfied with that."

"I guess I never really thought about it." Sun admitted softly.

"As Zhu gets older, he deserves everything you can give him about his mom. The stories, the mementoes, pictures, anything he can get...because that's all he's ever going to have anymore. Satisfied or not, that's just how it is." Ruby told him, knowing that it was just the cruel truth of the matter. "Her memory has to become part of you and Zhu, as a family. As a fellow huntress, I have to make sue that happens. I owe Octavia at least that much."

"You don't owe her anything, Ruby." Sun murmured. "You're not the reason she's gone...we all...did our best."

"Yeah, well, here's a news flash. I'm not satisfied with that either. I never will be." She told him. "You're not going to screw this up, Sun. I won't let you. To me, it's like a mission that's gone personal. It hits too close to home for it to be anything else."


	12. Chapter 12

What was turning into a sleepless night for Ruby, also turned into stressful when her scroll buzzed ominously.

The week was nearly coming to an end, and Ruby found herself struggling with what to do. She was hesitant about leaving Sun behind just yet. Still, her job was important to her too, and she found herself forced to make a choice.

Weiss called her for an upcoming mission, feeling the weight of duty as a huntress settle onto her shoulders. Ruby wasn't just an average huntress. She did the dirty work than many simply refused to do. She exterminated the dangerous Grimm located in the underground pathways and mines. The SDC had a whole team of skilled, licensed, hunters and huntresses, but they were under SDC contract only.

They were not under her friend's direct employment, which meant that any mining town that had been liberated from SDC control could not, and would not, be offered the protective services from the Schnee Dust Company. Freedom, meant independence, and that meant entire towns were left to their own devices.

Without a willing freelance huntress willing to go off the record books, the mines would never be kept safe, and Ruby took those missions upon her own shoulders on principle. It if it were any other time, she would not have hesitated, but now…

Ruby rolled the idea around in her head as she kept the scroll to her ear. "How many swarms have been reported?"

"None so far. Hopefully they can be put down before a swarm does gather together. That's why I was hoping you could go. You know that region better than anyone else."

"I know." The younger woman said. "It's just that I'm worried about what might happen if I leave."

"A valid concern, and one I share. However, Grimm don't wait for convenience. Ruby, be honest, how is Sun?" Weiss asked over the cracking of the scroll. "Has he made any marked improvement?"

Ruby could hear the woman hard at work, fingers tapping across keys in rapid succession.

"He's better, but not out of the woods." Ruby sighed. "The thing about drinking to take care of other problems. Even when you think you have it beat, that just might not be the case. Besides that…"

"What?"

"Well, it's just that Sun never really let himself heal before." Ruby had been thinking about that a lot. "He's just now starting to grieve."

Weiss seemed to think on this as her typing stopped and a small humming sound broke the wordlessness lingering in the air. Papers rustled, a desk drawer opened and closed, dispersing the faint static of background noise.

"Neptune called me. His mission has been prolonged, he doesn't want Sun on his own." Weiss said slowly. "Naturally, I agree with Neptune's assumptions. However, that's a double edged sword. If those towns fall behind schedule, production falls, and we all lose profits. I have a hard enough time finding hunters willing to go into the Faunus run mines as it is. I can't imagine what would happen if those towns lost their only means to support themselves."

"And most of those towns are independently run with the dust they mine themselves too." Ruby said, though she knew she was stating the obvious. "How quickly will they run out of supplies?"

"Depends on the community, I suppose." Weiss rustled around for more paperwork. A large book slammed on her desk, causing Ruby to flinch as she heard the woman speak once more. "Another supply drop isn't scheduled for two weeks. I could ask Coco to rush it, but that won't keep the town warm if the red dust depletes from the heating units."

"What I'm worried about are the tunnels that the Grimm tend to dig." Ruby said worriedly. "It seems like we're always filling Ursa dens, and Taijitu burrows."

Weiss rolled her eyes, thankful Ruby couldn't see her. "Bloody serpents have caused more cave-in over the years than I care to admit." The stress lingering on her features were clearly painted across her face. "I'd rather not have to call Nora in for another rock-wall demolition if I can help it."

"No kidding, after last time, I don't think anyone wants that. In saying that, though, how bad are the reports? Are the Grimm actively hunting?"

"I don't know, I've considered sending Blake, but you know how I feel about sending her away on missions. I'd much rather have her here, to help me deal with the paperwork. Thanks to all of the changes I'm implementing, there's so much of it lately." A delicate line of insults muffled across the line, and Ruby heard Yang laughing uproariously about something, but the young woman couldn't figure out what it was about. "Of course your sister is being of very little help when it comes late nights at the office."

"Sounds like a sticky situation."

"It is." Weiss agreed. "Are you willing to go north and sort things out?"

"I don't know." Ruby sighed to great length. "I'll talk to Sun and get back to you, how does that sound?"

"I'll need an answer by tomorrow, Ruby."

"Yeah, I can understand that." Ruby murmured. "I'll get back to you in the morning."

* * *

Ruby wasn't the only one struggling to fall asleep. Sun was too, for vastly different reasons.

The cogs in his mind kept turning, focusing entirely on the woman sleeping in his living room. He flopped onto his belly uselessly, face buried into his pillow, as if that would somehow shove the woman out of his mind. He couldn't help but think about her, about the entire day.

To Ruby's credit, she really was good with Zhu, making him smile effortlessly. The small boy was enamored with her and had chased after her cape, clinging onto it whenever he could.

Sun knew he shouldn't be surprised, Ruby was a lighthearted, spirited person. She looked for laugher and happiness wherever she went. It was one of the reasons he felt so damn guilty recently, because Ruby didn't let the weight of life crush her. She was unwavering against hardship, and that wasn't a small feat. He knew all too well just how difficult her life had once been. He had witnessed one too many atrocities that she had been made to endure.

The aftermath of such trials were painted across her skin in scars that would never completely heal. Ruby would argue it was the life she chose, but he knew it went deeper than that. Her life had chosen her, and she clung to what she assumed to be destiny.

Sun cursed to himself. He had been entirely too unkind to her lately, and Ruby had gone through enough in her life. He had to make it up to her somehow, but he couldn't think of how best to do that. His mind drifted to her, what she might want or need. In that time he found that her smile pervaded his thoughts even more, that her words continually challenged his views of himself, and the way he now saw the world.

In a way, he was becoming a new man. Sun wasn't sure he liked that. Then again, he didn't entirely dislike it either. He had begun to want her there with him, offering a strict night and day difference to his sensibilities.

It didn't help that as a Faunus, he was drawn to baser natures.

Senses of smell and touch, what Ruby unknowingly provided with her usual effortlessness. She thought very little of it. She was just a friendly person with a gentle personality. One that became barbed and sharpened to a fine point when crossed, just like her namesake. Rare as that was to happen, Ruby was no pushover. She pushed back with a defiance that was as intriguing to him as it was sentimental.

All of that combined with one simple, torturous fact: he was lonely.


	13. Chapter 13

The hours passed, and Sun still tossed and turned in bed.

Octavia's scent was gone. Replaced with the fruity scent of berries. Ruby had washed the sheets and made the bed. Her smell lingered there in passing, distantly ghosting over his bedding. He cursed to himself. Thoughts of what it should smell like pricked at his mind. Conflicted, he took a deep breath of Ruby's scent, signature to her, wholly and completely.

He found that it wasn't unpleasant to his nose. Distracting indeed, but something he could get used to. Worse still, he wanted to get used to it. The thought of that made him feel sick. As though he wasn't allowed to feel that way. All over again as a new wave of fresh guilt pummeled into him. Sun bit his lip to stifle the thought of seeking comfort in Ruby's scent.

It was wrong.

Completely, terribly, wrong. His throat felt scratchy, and he swallowed back the desire to go out into the main room, even as he muttered curses into his pillow.

It was going to be a long, long, night.

* * *

He had to make amends somehow, his heart was set on it.

When daylight came he found that Zhu was perched over the mangled loveseat that Ruby was sleeping on. The boy was quietly waiting for her to wake up. It made Sun swallow hard, knowing well that the inquisitive child would always do the same after waking up from an afternoon nap with Octavia. The striking comparison to Zhu's ruddy tresses only added to the scene.

If someone didn't know better, they could mistake the matter entirely. They might think Ruby to be his mother. Sun didn't want to think of that, and shoved it out of his mind.

He needed to focus. He needed to prove to Ruby that he appreciated everything she was doing for him. Even if he didn't understand why she put in the effort, he was more than grateful. He didn't know how express that, but he thought breakfast in bed would be a start. He wasn't like Ren, he couldn't work the same kind of magic with banana pancakes. Sun had tried to capture that same exact flavor, but he knew instantly that they would fall short.

The strawberry ones would too, and his ego deflated even further into the nothingness he often felt. Indifferently, he just thanked the fact that things weren't burned.

Plating the pancakes and placing the condiments on the try along with coffee, he made his way to the living area. Ruby slept curled up on the mangled loveseat in the corner of the room. It was old, it was ratty, and it was one of the first pieces of furniture Sun had ever purchased as a hunter-in-training. As a result it had more stains on it than Octavia or Weiss could scrub out of it, and they had both tried to no avail. Those same stains proved no match for Ruby years later.

It stood as total and complete proof that he enjoyed his years in training. In spite of its flaws, missing hunks of stuffing, and mismatched sewn patches aside, it was the most comfortable piece of furniture he had ever owned. So long as it continued to be that way, he had no intention of ever getting rid of it.

With a faint smile, he put the try on the end table and toyed with Ruby's bangs gently until she stirred. He said nothing as he eyes fluttered open. There was nothing to say in that moment. At least, nothing that would seem right, and so he left her with the breakfast he had prepared, hoping his actions could speak louder than his words.

* * *

It was only after Ruby had finally woken up, eaten, and washed up for the day that she broached the subject with Sun, seeing the conflict at war in his eyes. "I don't need anything, Sun. I just wanted to help a friend, that's all."

"There's got to be something though." Sun said as he tended the fire. "A man always repays his debts."

"I just want you to be happy again." Ruby told him. "I don't want to go back to the mansion and worry about whether or not you're staying clean." Ruby gave him a long look, seeing the exhaustion still in his features. He was getting better, slowly, but he was still far from alright. He stood on a slippery slope, and they both knew it. "I want you to get better. My uncle will be going back to Vale tomorrow, but I'll stay here as long as you need me."

"It would be an imposition." Sun said. "I'd be holding you back. You've got a mission to do."

"It's not an imposition to help a friend." Ruby said then. "You're right that I have my own work to return to. The mines won't inspect themselves, people's lives are at stake if Grimm start making homes in them unchecked. That's why if you want me to say, I need to know. I'm sure Weiss will be happy to send someone else."

Sun looked over to Zhu. "We'll be fine, Ruby."

"Can I really believe that?" She asked.

"I understand if you don't. I guess I'll just have to prove it to you." Sun said softly. "I meant what I say about paying you back somehow. If there's anything I can do, tell me. I will."

"Look after yourself, and whenever you're in a bad mood, don't drink." Ruby told him. "If you can manage to pull that off, it's repayment enough."

He cringed, but nodded. "I'll try."

"Don't try." She said. "Do. Prove to yourself that you can survive without drinking, and that will prove it to me. Sun, I need you to do that."

His eyes returned to the fire, watching it dance and turn, crackling softly behind the metal mesh containing the popping sparks. His thoughts bubbling within him.

* * *

Sun opened his eyes, sighing at great length as he looked at his wife's grave, all of the feelings from before no easier to bear.

It had only been a week, his mind still a slow crawl, nothing like the way it should be. He knew, of course, that time would be the thing to heal the wound, if it healed at all. Still he doubted it would be enough, and as reluctant as he was to say it, he was afraid of moving forward in his life. He had no choice, but that didn't settle his beating heart any less.

As he watched Zhu sniff the grave marker curiously, and painful throbbing squeezed his chest. He tried to look away, but he couldn't, so he continued to watch his son scamper around his mother's marker.

The young child didn't know any better, small fingers poking at the flowers made for the bitterly cold weather. He sniffed them too, as if trying to ascertain their reason for being laid out on the brick. He opened his mouth as if to bite them, only to close it. Then he sniffed them again. Returning his attention to the smooth stone with his mother's name engraved across it, he made small noises.

In time, Zhu would come to understand, but that time was not today, and Sun knew that.

The blonde haired man couldn't believe he was here, sitting in the cemetery. A handful of hours ago, if it was even that, he had outright snarled at the idea. Yet, unflinchingly, Ruby had insisted on it. So here he was, on his first proper outing, spending the day as if it was no big deal.

Beside him, Ruby sat, the same way she had since they arrived. She bowed her head, closed her eyes, taking in the peaceful solitude as it wafted over them. It was a rather humbling experience, truth be told.

"Well, that's that, then." Sun muttered between gritted teeth, trying to hold back any and all emotion from escaping his lips.

"Are you ready?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know." Sun murmured more to himself, than to the woman next to him. "Do you think I am?"

"No…" Ruby said after some thought. "I don't think you're ready to be alone, but I have to trust you. I have to give you a chance, and I need to go take care of that mission. Besides, Neptune will be back soon enough." She flicked her gaze to him. "If you don't think you can handle this, I'll stay here. There are other hunters Weiss can fly in. It might take some time, but the mining communities will understand."

"I thought you might say that…" Sun replied dejectedly. "I just don't want to be a burden, that's all. Besides, if there are Grimm up north, another group of hunters might not make it there in time. Your semblance is speed, you can make the trip easily. You know the way."

She gave him a look. "You know, I can stay here just as easily."

"Ruby." Sun smirked sadly. "You can't put your life on hold for me. It's like you said, you belong out there. You love it. For you, it's a whole way of life...you can't change that for me. I'd never force you to."

"You're right." She said softly. "It's the life I lead, but, I'll be back." Then she gently touched his arm. "And I want you to be _clean_ when I come back."

"…and if I'm not?" He asked, suddenly sounding unsure, his voice thick, his words hard.

A world weary sigh escaped her. "Come here." She breathed, pulling him into a tight hug, nearly yanking him sideways into the snow, but the man in her arms couldn't be bothered to care. "Let me tell you a riddle my uncle once told me…are you listening?"

"Yes." He said just as softly, a wave of tiredness falling over him as he took a deep breath.

"An addicted man walks into a bar." She murmurs softer still. "There's a glass of whiskey on the table. He knows if he drinks it, he'll order more. When he does, he'll forget... even if it's just for just a few hours. If he doesn't drink, he'll sit there...and he'll think about every failure he's ever made. Either way, he'll wake up in the morning and nothing will have changed. Which is worse? Giving into his own vices entirely? Or failing to meet the expectations of those who need him most?"

* * *

 **AYangThang:** Thank you all to have followed, favorited, and reviewed this short glimpse into the minds and hearts of Sun and Ruby within the "I Want" universe.

This concludes the side story of "I Want: One Week". As I've stated before, the couple can also be found as a side pairing in other stories such as "I Want a Cub" and another story soon to be released. Keep an eye on my profile for more information.

RedSun will also have their own full length story soon enough. The outline is in the works. Ruby/Sun will also feature in several other companion side stories as time moves forward detailing their budding relationship, Sun's relapse, his first journey with Ruby, and so on, and so forth. In any case, I hoped you enjoyed this little companion piece for what it was.

Until next time, everyone!


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